It started with chills. Weeks later, he was gone
Brent Cehan had just retired after 36 years at the Toronto Public Library. He looked forward to travelling and spending time with family and friends. But that never happened. Cehan was one of nine Canadians who died of West Nile virus last year.
"When he retired, he celebrated with all his friends outdoors, going to patios, taking walks with them in High Park, and doing all these outdoor things — and that's the thing that got him in the end," said Cehan's sister, Andrea Carrie.
"It was so sad because we were looking so forward to him retiring."
Carrie said she is telling Cehan's story because she wants Canadians to be aware, take precautions and maybe save some lives.
Two months before Cehan's death, Toronto Public Health put out a news release confirming the first mosquitoes of the season had tested positive for West Nile virus.
It's transmitted to humans through the bite of mosquito infected after biting and feeding on the blood of infected birds. Symptoms typically develop within two to 15 days.
About 80 per cent of infected people never show symptoms and don't feel sick. But about 20 per cent experience flu-like symptoms including fever, headache, body aches, fatigue and sometimes a rash.
In less than one per cent of cases, the virus affects the central nervous system and requires immediate medical attention.
"If the virus travels to your brain or your spinal cord, it can cause inflammation, which can then lead to serious complications like high-grade fever, hallucinations, confusion and potentially even death," said Corby Fink, assistant professor at the University of Manitoba's Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. He does research on emerging pathogens, including SARS CoV2, mpox and West Nile virus.
Men, people over 50 and those with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of severe illness. There is no specific medication to treat or cure the virus, and no human vaccine exists, Fink said.
281 cases, nine deathsCarrie says her brother got chills on Aug. 30. That progressed to vomiting and extreme diarrhea and fatigue, but he thought it was just a summer flu.
"He did complain about a lot of pain in his spine," said Carrie, who lives in Kingston, Ont., about three hours from her brother's home.
Cehan stopped responding to her phone calls so she asked a friend to check on him. They found him in bed and it took some time for him to rouse. He was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph's Health Centre.
Carrie came to visit and found "he was a bit confused. I asked the nurse about it, and she said, 'Oh, sometimes that happens when people are severely dehydrated like him.' So I thought nothing of it."
But the next day, he was hallucinating and acting out. And one day later, Carrie got a call from the doctor who said they were sedating him and putting him on life support because his breathing had deteriorated.
"We kept hoping that he would rally and he just didn't in the end."
Results from a spinal tap done just before his death revealed Cehan had meningitis with encephalitis caused by West Nile virus, Carrie said, adding he was at higher risk because of his age and two previous heart attacks. His certificate of death lists his cause of death as complications of West Nile encephalitis.
In fact, Carrie said the attending physician told her there were four other patients in the ICU with complications of West Nile virus when Cehan was there.
"The doctor was extremely shocked, because it's such a rare thing to get that sick with West Nile. Only one per cent of people get that sick," she said.
A spokesperson for Unity Health, operator of St. Joseph's, referred questions about West Nile virus cases to Toronto Public Health. That agency says it received reports of 78 confirmed and probable human cases of West Nile virus infection last year. No human cases have been reported in Toronto so far in 2026.
Meanwhile, in 2025, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported 281 clinical cases, 14 asymptomatic cases, and nine deaths.
PHAC said it doesn't provide detailed provincial or territorial breakdowns for small numbers of deaths but human cases were reported last year in six provinces, with the majority in Ontario and Quebec.
"West Nile activity can vary quite substantially from year to year and even within the season and it's typically a combination of factors like weather, bird populations, mosquito abundance and other local environmental conditions," Dr. Joanne Tataryn, a PHAC senior epidemiologist and veterinarian, told CBC News.
Public health agencies do surveillance throughout the mosquito season and PHAC is again running its Tiger Mosquito Citizen Science study in the Windsor-Essex region of southern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area.
That information is available online and through media alerts, and Tataryn encourages Canadians to stay informed and take actions to protect their health, especially when the risk is increasing.
Precautions include:
- Wear light-coloured clothing, long pants and long-sleeved shirts when outdoors.
- Apply insect repellent approved by Health Canada.
- Take extra care at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active by using repellent and covering exposed skin.
- Ensure windows and doors have tight-fitting screens.
- Eliminate standing water on your property, where mosquitoes can breed.
"We have such wonderful Canadian summers, we want to continue to get out, be active and enjoy them," Tataryn said.
Carrie understands climate changes means disease-bearing mosquitoes will become more common in northern countries. She worries Canadians, especially in large cities, don't understand the risks.
"I would like people to be safe. I hope that Brent's death wasn't for no reason," she said.
"He basically had two and a half weeks of just socializing with friends at the end and then he was sick and hospitalized and it was over. It's just so unfortunate that all these dreams he had and he'd spent all that time waiting, it was done."
cbc.ca
